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Fast and Furious filmmaker speeds into video game hell with Helldivers movie
Will Helldivers deliver the Starship Troopers satire that the games were known for? Or will Justin Lin lean on the intense action of the Fast and Furious series? We'll have to find out
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Prepare to defend Super Earth on an even bigger scale as Helldivers becomes the latest video game to get a big-screen adaptation. Sony Pictures and PlayStation Productions are bringing us a live-action adaptation of the action-packed Helldivers games, and they’re tapping the director of several Fast and Furious movies to do it.
Justin Lin is best known for his work on the Fast and Furious franchise, where he has directed five Fast and Furious movies, starting with The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. He also dipped into the sci-fi genre before when he directed Star Trek Beyond. Now he’ll be directing the Helldivers live-action film for Sony Pictures with a script written by Gary Dauberman, who has written horror films It and Annabelle.
The movie, which doesn’t have a release date yet, is based on the Arrowhead Game Studios video game series. Helldivers 2 was one of the big hits of 2024 for Sony, which published it. It recalls the satirical tone of Starship Troopers, with a group of soldiers dropped onto various planets to both protect Super Earth and to “spread democracy,” something that always involves blowing up large numbers of locals.
Plot details for the Helldivers movie haven’t been released yet, so we don’t know if the satirical edge of the games will be maintained in the film version. Lin’s work in the Fast and Furious series isn’t known for its subtlety, but he definitely has the action chops to adapt the gameplay onto the screen. Dauberman’s script is likely to be dripping with tension and horror, which is also giving us cautious optimism on this one.
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